​I finished a new painting! This one is called “Blue Parrot” and it’s a 9×12 acrylic on Art Alternatives Studio Canvas.

​I used a combination of cobalt blue mixed with transparent mixing white and Mars black, unsure if I would be able to get the color that was in my reference photo. The cobalt blue was a last minute change from the ultramarine and I believe I made the right decision regarding that.

Surprisingly, as soon as I added the first black curved lines, it already started to look like feathers

Speaking of feathers, they were created by layering darker and lighter colors over my base color

​Before I go any further, I think I should mention that before I started this painting I created a project in Corel paintshop and placed the parrot against different color backgrounds. That’s how I decided on the burnt sienna background.

Because I wanted the beak to appear more solid, I used ivory black and titanium white to paint it. These colors are opaque as opposed to being transparent, so they create a solid effect